Vote Mars
by BIFF1
Summary: Movie compliant - Neptune is crying out for a new sheriff and Veronica is more than happy to follow in her father's footsteps even if he isn't that happy about it. Mac however is more than happy to lend her talents to a job she might actually enjoy and Dick has a problem that he will gladly fund Veronica's campaign if she makes it go away. Eventual MaDi, established LoVe - REVISED
1. Vote Mars

**Vote Mars**

* * *

**A/N:** So I know its been a long time since I've really posted anything new. That is in part because I've been rewriting/fixing Vote Mars and in part because I've been working on my own work aiming to get something actually published. Sorry for the delay hope you enjoy

* * *

She slid into the passenger seat of Mac's car and feels like the worst daughter in the world. A prize she seems to be constantly claiming.

"Why do you look like you're going to barf?" Mac asks driving quickly back to the office where her father is waiting to gush about how good she must have done on the Bar, about how his baby girl is going to be a lawyer.

"I didn't take the Bar." the words just fall out of her mouth like tossed cookies.

"What are you talking about? You were in there for two hours. I know, I waited, I played like a million games of Ticket to Ride on my phone and watched an episode of Buffy."

"I went in totally ready to take the Bar and..." she trails off.

"And?"

"And then I didn't?" She feels a special brand of bad for lying to Mac. She had never intended to take the Bar. Weeks earlier when she had gone to sign up to take the test she had seen that the POST was writing today...

"So what, you sat in there for two hours not taking a test? What did you do? Throw up? Did you throw up? You could have messaged me, I would have come and held you're hair for you." She starts the car back up and starts towards the office.

"Do I really look that bad?" She asks flipping the mirror down and discovering, yes she absolutely looks that bad, she's too pale and she feels cold all over. Since when had lying done that to her? She used to be the champion of lying, to everyone, especially herself.

Maybe she had made the right decision after all. What good was a lawyer who couldn't lie?

"What happened, Veronica?" Mac asks pulling to a stop in front of the office.

"I walked down the hall and there were two doors. One door led to the Bar and the other led to the POST." She tests out the lie because it's the one she plans to use on her father.

That some overwhelming, unstoppable feeling had happened, that it was a last minute decision; not one she had been agonizing over for weeks.

She can almost see the look of betrayal on her father's face if he figured out that she had been planning to take the POST the entire time, that every time he had quizzed her on law she had been trying to apply it to questions that would be on the POST.

She had promised no more lies and this lie of omission, all this time, had been killing her and she feared might kill what little trust he had left in her.

"You got the mail for two hours?"

"It stands for Peace Officer's Standard Training..."

A light seems to go on in Mac's eyes and she nods a little for encouragement.

"So through one door was the Bar and being a lawyer, making dad happy, working with Cliff and running the p.i business with dad on the side... and the other door was the POST, and being able to run for sheriff and to kill all that corruption all while taking down that bastard that ran down my father and killed Sacks..." She has to pause there because Sacks had been a sometimes friend and a good cop when it really came down to it, he didn't deserve what he got, and she'd always thought his moustache was funny.

"So you took the POST?"

"Yeah."

" You're going to run for sheriff?"

"If I pass..."

Mac scoffs at that and it calms her nerves a little, "Like you couldn't have taken that test ten years ago and aced it without all that laywer-y knowledge all up in your noggin." Mac pushes tapping said noggin and she's glad that someone in the car has confidence in her, "When is the next election?"

"Three months."

"Is that enough time? Where are you going to get the money for a campaign?"

Okay, so she hadn't really thought about that and perhaps everyone in Neptune with deep pockets hated her except for Logan who wouldn't be back until two months too late.

She'd think of something.

"I'll think of something."

"I'm sure you will. If you need anything from me just call, or text, or smoke signal..."

"Smoke signal?"

"Uh yeah, I was a scout, I wouldn't use semaphore thou, I'm pretty rusty and might just end up bringing pizza instead of coming to your tech rescue."

"That sounds pretty win-win to me." She smiles and Mac returns it but there's something off about it. She notices the time and how she should really be at Kane software already, but she seems to be dragging out this conversation.

"You want me to come in and help you break the news to your dad?"

Yeah, there is definitely something wrong because no one in their right mind would want to be in the middle of a Mars throw down. This is definitely something they are going to have a talk about later.

"Nah I got this, you go to work. Thanks for driving me to the test...even if I didn't take the one I meant to."

Mac runs her hands across the steering wheel but nods, "Call me later?"

"Will do Mac-attack." she confirms and gets out of the car.

The sun is shining again. It always seems to be shining here and she can't help but find that kind of funny when it's the darkest place she's ever been.

She watches Mac drive off towards her actual job because she has this weird feeling that if she didn't Mac would still be sitting there in her car when she came back out of the office that night.

Plus, she really wasn't looking forward to telling her dad that she was following in his footsteps no matter how hard he protested.

Maybe if she was vague about not taking the Bar he wouldn't catch on about how long it actually takes or that she'd have to go to LA for it.

God, she hoped he didn't talk to Cliff about it.

Taking a deep, steadying breath she climbs the stairs up towards the office.

The second she opens the door she regrets it.

There's a loud pop and she hits the ground, her mind spinning to remember where exactly in her purse Mr. Sparky is sleeping.

She's counting possible exits and possible culprits when streamers hit the ground in front of her.

It's a popper, not a gun.

"I haven't seen anyone drop like that in years." Her dad laughs moving around the desk, the crutches making it a clattering slow affair.

Pushing herself up off the, thankfully, clean floor she narrows her eyes at him, " Why would you give your favorite daughter a heart attack like that?"

" It's a celebration popper. You're just getting paranoid in your old age."

She scoffs at that. It's not paranoia if it's true and it's been true more times than not.

"So how did my little lawyer do?"

"Uh... About that..." She sinks to the couch and watches, pained, as her father moves slowly to sit on the couch with her.

" Oh honey, you can always take it again." He smiles softly and runs a hand through her hair.

_Yep worst daughter in the world._

" I'm sure I passed the test I took." She tells him plainly and he smiles brightly for a moment before processing just how vague her words really are.

"What test did you take?" He asks, his voice low and slow like he's preparing for her to just stab him right in the heart.

"The POST."

He chokes on spit, " You did what?"

"I took the-"

"I heard you." He sags back into the couch, his head on the back and his fingers pressed into his eyes.

She's silent for a long moment, waiting for the shit to hit fans.

"Why would you take the POST, Veronica?" He sounds so tired.

"I'm going to run for Sheriff." She tells him as firmly as she can manage, but the way her father looks at her eats away at her resolve.

"How well, exactly, do you think another Mars running for Sheriff will go, Veronica? They'll eat you alive."

"They'll only eat me alive if I let them." She's had people try and destroy her, her entire life...well the majority of it anyway.

"Veronica why do you want to be Sheriff..."

She pushes herself up from the couch. _This is it, time for the big Serpico speech._

"I want to be Sheriff...I _need_ to be Sheriff because no one else is willing or able to clean up this mess. The police brutality, the corruption...what they did to you...to Sacks..." Keith looks down at his lap at that and she has to take a breath to steady herself because the look on his face just intensifies that horrible rock feeling in her gut, "I _need_ to be Sheriff because you can't be and this town needs a Mars in office."

She wonders for a brief moment how much of this is guilt over ruining her father's election, how much of it is her desire to fix this for him. To protect people like Weevil who'd made something of their life only to have it ripped away because the rich _could_.

"The election is going to be painful Veronica you have to know that."

"When did I ever do anything easy?"

"They are going to drag everything out into the open."

She laughed at that, " Since when is that new? They showed the sex tape at my high school reunion. They think I can't handle a little mudslinging? Baby I live in the mud."


	2. Garden Party

**Mac: Project Garden Party**

* * *

She pulled into her parking spot at Kane Software, the little thing with her name on it at the far end of the lot, and sat in her car.

She hated her job.

She's never hated anything so much in her entire life.

The very idea of stepping into that building makes her want to vomit. Maybe she'd just been projecting on Veronica, but, then again, maybe not. Deciding to run for Sheriff was kind of a huge deal.

A huge deal she was totally behind. Then again, she had only voted for Sheriff once and it was for Keith. Why break a Mars-only tradition?

Okay Mackenzie, go in that building, and to your desk, and do that mindless crap they pay you the dollar dollar bills for.

She steps out of the car and makes her way into the building flashing a smile at the security guard and making her way to the elevator.

A quick scan of her hand and the press of a button and she's off... It seems like she works for a spy company or intelligence, or something exciting.

It had been exciting all of a month before she realized that she was only getting parts of a whole project and had no input whatsoever.

It was like working on the God damn X-files movie.

She gets off the elevator and walks towards her station, the twisting in her stomach killing her.

She doesn't want to be here anymore. She misses the freedom of running her own projects.

She'd been promised a position on Kane's top team, working on the next big project. They hadn't mentioned anything about how she wasn't allowed to know what the fuck it was.

She sits down heavily in her ergonomic wheelie chair and pulls the in box towards her, allowing for it to scrape across the desk.

"That time of the month, Mackenzie?" A thick, low voice came from behind her.

Joshua. Her work station partner... She wanted to staple him in the face with her regulation Swingline. He seemed perfectly content to just create what he was told and he smelt like a boy's locker room. Like sweat, bad cologne, and insecurity.

"Like you would ever need to know." She tells him firmly, starting up her station. He's not unattractive. In fact, if he never spoke and was on the far side of the room she might be into it.

However that wasn't the case.

The hairs on the back of her neck rise and she feels fingers graze across her neck.

"You know I have HR on speed dial now, right?" She hisses pulling her seat in closer to the desk.

He laughs like it's some sort of in-joke they share. She's serious. She's had them on speed dial since he emailed her a very inappropriate, very detailed message declaring his intentions.

Maybe he's the reason she hates this job? She starts the programming she's allotted for today and knows it's only part of the problem.

Her brain is going to die; she can feel herself getting dull and hates this.

Several hours later she finds herself blissfully alone, the rest of the team out somewhere for lunch. She gave the vegan excuse again.

They have to know it's an excuse because they never call her out on vegan options at the places they go and she knows for a fact that The Palomino does an amazing vegan taco that she's been craving all week.

It's just that...they're so boring. She had spent her formative years trying to get in the pants of a sociopath, helping to solve murders, catch rapists, and break into Kane Software.

Her BFF for life was _the_ Veronica Mars for Christ sakes.

She could feel her brain turning to pudding as she skimmed her emails. Wallace asking for help with some school fundraiser he'd been roped into, some cute animal picture thing from her grandma, details on Parker's wedding that she hasn't even decided if she's even going to or not.

An email from Joshua... Sent from his phone? No thanks, that reaks of dick pic and she'd rather eat glass.

Lord knows it's been awhile, but she'd rather pay for services rendered than let that freak's parts anywhere near her own.

She deletes it without looking and as she's contemplating the pros and cons of putting a SNES emulator on the work computer her alarm goes off on her phone.

She pushes away from her desk, the wheels of her chair catching momentarily on the carpet between her desk and Joshua's.

His password is laughable.

Alpha numeric? _Really? not a single symbol?_ So much for all that MIT shit he talks. She could break into this in her sleep.

She's pouring through his programming and comparing it to what she's creating.

She just wants to know what the hell she's creating; if it's some Frankenstein monster that's going to make her feel dirty for the rest of her life, or if it's something she can take pride in and push through this rough patch for because _G__od_ she wants to cut and run.

The elevator makes it's particular after lunch clang and she zooms back to her desk.

She'll just get though today. She's hoping if she gets her allotment done quick enough she'll be able to leave early so she can go help Veronica sort out this Sheriff stuff. Something she'd much rather be spending her time on.

"Did you get my message?" Joshua asks and the smirk on his face is slimy, there's a sleazy quality to it that makes her skin crawl.

"No. You sure you have the address right?"

Suddenly, he looks so wonderfully nervous that she has to bite back a smirk and turn to her work.

She finishes early and pushes back from her desk careful not to bump into Joshua's chair.

Her desk phone goes off.

Confused she answers

"Mackenzie..."

_Come to conference room K. _

They hang up before she can ask if she needs to bring anything with her.

She walks down the long, ominous hall to meeting room K. When she enters, Jake Kane, Weidman and that fat lady from HR are sitting at the far end of the table and at her end of the table there's a stack of papers, a pen and a little box.

"Good afternoon Ms. Mackenzie, did you have a productive morning?" The fat lady asks with a smile.

" Yes, thank you." She returns doing her best not to stare at Jake Kane. Trying desperately to remember all the things Veronica had told her about him to make him less impressive.

"You were seen out with Miss. Mars this morning." Weidman says like she's supposes to be surprised that he knows.

"That's correct...is there some problem with that? I didn't call in sick or lie about going to a doctor's appointment. I took the morning off as a personal day." She tells them, eyeing the stack of paper at her end.

_Holy fuck..._

Those are termination papers.

She looks up at them, " You're firing me. Why?"

She's fairly certain they have to actually tell her.

"You are a security risk, Miss. Mackenzie."

"Because I'm friends with Veronica and I took her to take-?"

"No. You are a security risk because you have been sneaking into your co-workers' computers looking for the other parts of Project Garden Party."

Honestly, she'd been surprised that they hadn't fired her last week, breaking into Joshua's computer was certainly not her first offense, just the first of the week.

It was odd that they had waited...

_Oh those bastards._

"You're firing me now instead of earlier because I've just finished the programming you needed me for. God." She shakes her head, grabs the pen and starts signing the release forms, " You know what? Fuck this." She flips through the papers, signing every spot indicated by those stupid arrow Post-its.

She drops her badge into the little box provided, "It's not going to work." She tells them and Jake narrows his eyes but says nothing, "This Garden Party, the security protocols you had me do will need to be completely rewritten. They won't work with half of the team's parts. I would have been happy to tell you that earlier if you'd treated this like an actual team and not some sort of dystopian factory."

"What do you mean it won't..." Jake stands from his seat between the others, his voice beautifully desperate.

"I'm sorry. I don't work for you any more. You can figure that out on your own, big brother." She walks out of the conference room, back to her desk, and sees that a security guard already has her things swept into a box.

"Mac?" Pat asks standing from her desk at the far end of the floor, "What's going on?"

"I'm out. Apparently I'm too interesting to work here. Have fun." She starts to the elevator, " Alright Kojak, lets do this." She presses the call button and gets into the elevator with the security guard who is nice enough to continue holding her box of stuff, "You going to carry that all the way to my car for me, or just shove it at me and kick me out of the front doors?"

He looks her up and down, "Which lot is your car in?"

"F."

He smirks, "You're on your own, sweets."

She looks down at her skirt, not enough leg for F lot she supposes. Whatever, she can't wait to tell Veronica how beautifully she burnt this bridge and if anyone could appreciate the beauty of a burnt bridge it was her bestie.


	3. For Richard

The sounds of Girl Talk and explosions fill the beach house.

He's sitting on the couch, a brownie in one hand and his Xbox controller in the other. He loves when Logan's in town, but having free reign of his house is always great.

Logan makes him wear pants.

_Psssh_

It's not like he's never seen him in his underwear before.

But noooo. Logan had to grow up into an actual adult and shit.

_Boo_

_Wasn't he aware that they had obscene amounts of money? That they could just drink and fuck (girls not each other. Gross) and not work? _

His trust fund had said he needed a university degree, it said nothing about actually doing anything with it.

He pops the brownie in his mouth and proceeds to blow his way through yet another multiplayer match.

_Gawd._

He was baked and these punks weren't even a challenge.

_Thirsty._

He grabs his beer bottle off the table and shakes it. Dry.

He lets the game wait at the match screen and pushes away from the couch.

He walks to the kitchen, passed the front door.

"Huh...weird." He pushes the door closed. He doesn't remember leaving it open...then again, that doesn't really mean that he didn't.

He rummages around the fridge. He swears there's one last beer in here somewhere, the last of the Logan beer. He finds it too hoppy, but it's here and he feels like Logan would be disappointed if he came back and his beer was still in the fridge.

"Ah ha!" He grabs the neck of the bottle out from behind a tower of half eaten take out.

The song has switched over to something low and slow, and kind of pretty in a creepy sort of way. Must be some of Logan's_ I have feelings _shit.

He makes his way back to the couch, closing the front door on his way.

"Wait." He looks back at the door.

He definitely closed that on the way to the kitchen. He pushes it closed and watches it for a moment to make sure it doesn't pop back open.

It doesn't.

"Weird..." He twists the lock and goes back to the couch. Maybe he should get a locksmith to look at it or something.

_Meh, it'd probably never happen again._

He turns the corner and everything feels kind of wrong...

The TV is no longer showing the multiplayer screen... It's the music screen.

Death Cab...

The , low music is getting increasingly aggressive, but that seems to be the only thing different.

He must just be getting paranoid. Too many brownies. He sits back down on the couch.

He reaches out for the controller and hits the coffee table. He looks down; the controller is in the floor, _must have fallen._

_How I wish you could see the potential_

He looks up, some dude has started over the melody.

_The potential of you and __me_

He picks up the controller and quickly kills the song. It's giving him the creeps.

Chill Dick.

You came in drunk and didn't close the door properly.

You didn't wait for the door to click before you went to the kitchen.

The controller fell off the table and changed the music.

_Nothing weird is going on._ Weird shit doesn't happen _to_ him it only happens _around_ him.

He relaxes into the couch taking a long drink of the pale ale Logan loves so much, _weirdo_, and starts up another round of multiplayer COD.

Hours are lost to more brownies, cans of pop, and COD.

His phone goes off, vibrating across the far side of the coffee table... _weird_ he thought he left it in his bedroom. Obviously not.

It's an unknown number...

_Hey bitch the __09er __tonight, right?_

It's Kim...or Kelsey? She shouldn't be an unknown number.

_I guess I can make room in my busy schedule._

He pushes away from the couch and starts towards the stairs. He supposes he has to put pants on sometime or other.

_The ocean was glass, Dick. Everyone knows you were getting baked and playing Call of Duty all day. _

He rolls his eyes, pushes his bedroom door open and almost drops the phone.

His bed is not only made but turned down. He didn't have maid service today.

_Dick?_

"I'll call you back." He hangs up and goes to the bed. On the pillow. His pillow, his side, is a book. A journal of sorts, all ragged pages and ribbon.

He opens the bedside table and pulls his gun out of its not so creative hiding place.

He sweeps the house.

It's empty and so is his phone. Well not exactly _empty_. Every girl in his phone is wiped. Even Kelly who's a frat brother. Everyone.

Well, all but one.

Mr. Sparky - Veronica.

He picks the book up and he feels like he's going to vomit.

_For __Richard_

In all swirling black pen, the page has little swirls of detail in the corners of its heavy paper.

He flips to the next page expecting some sort of murder plan instead he finds what he assumes is a poem.

_Eyes like the ocean_  
_Hair like the sunshine, I'm drowning_  
_Drowning in your light_

_Okay this was seriously a problem_. He put the 'book of crazy' down on the night stand and pulled on some jeans.

It was that big of a problem, it deserved pants. After all, he didn't do a sweep of his house with his handgun every day.

He sat in his car, in front of the building, for way too long.

He didn't want to do this.

He had money, the cops would listen to him, they'd deal with it for him...but he honestly didn't trust them to get the job done. They were good at framing poor people and making drug charges and shit just go away. They hadn't solved an actual case since, God, forever.

Veronica was good at this kind of shit.

He didn't want the convenient person charged, he wants the actual bitch that had been in his house taken down.

Which meant Veronica, unfortunately.

He's about to get out of his car and cross the street to the office when a car he recognizes parks in front of the building and a girl gets out. A girl with short blondish hair and a skirt that rides up as she bends down into the car to pull something out.

Yeah, he'd tap that, but there is something oddly familiar about her.

He's trying to guess between cheating husband or missing friend when she straightens up and sets a box of stuff on the roof of the car. She stands there in the street and rubs her hands down her thighs, trying to smooth her skirt.

Yeah, he'd _definitely_ tap that.

_Be hot, come on be hot._

If she's hot he'll get out of the car right now and work some Dick magic. Pun not intended, but appreciated. Maybe stay at her place... In fact, that was a pretty good plan, he was going to go get laid tonight. The locks had all been changed, but there was so much glass.

He bites his lip waiting for her to turn and when she does he feels sick all over again.

"When the fuck-"

_Mac_.

He watches her walk into the building paying far too much attention to the movements of her body going up the stairs as she heaves the box of what look like her worldly possessions along with her. He's racking his brain trying to figure out when exactly Mac, _fucking __Ghostworld_, got so damn fuckable because he watches her climb the stairs until her heels disappear.

Maybe he was better off with the cops.

He looks across the car to the passenger seat where the offending ' journal of shit poetry' is waiting.

_No._

He knew he wasn't and while he had all the locks replaced before he had left it still felt wrong and cold.

The same slow, low build up of melody fills the car and he slams his hand into the radio and forces himself out of the car.


	4. Cha Ching

**Cha Ching**

* * *

_So how's he taking it?_

She's been on the phone with Wallace for a good half an hour and her father has come out of his office three times to just look at her with this kind of sad expression and then hobble back to his desk.

"Oh so well. He's rushing out right now to buy glitter for my campaign posters...he keeps offering me a cigar and patting me on the back...he's dusting off the old JVC to document my rise to power...he's-"

_Okay okay I get it badly. Stop_.

Good because she couldn't come up with another one. She feels terrible, a dull heavy stomach-ache kind of awful and if there's one person she knows with a magical power to fix stuff its Papa Bear.

_So you're really doing this then_

She takes a deep shuttering breath and she's not even that ashamed of it because its Wallace he's practically her arm. He's a part of her.

"Yes. I am."

_And your going to sweep it. Landslide._

She smiles to herself and skims the Balboa county sheriffs departments site to find out when she can take the next part of the test. It's a physical.

She pokes herself in the stomach and wonders when exactly becoming a lawyer had given her all this extra body mass.

"Thanks... What are you doing for dinner tonight?"

_Pizza and staff meeting_

He grumbles and she's about to dig into him about teaching not being all about summers off when the office door opens and Mac steps in.

"I have to go Mac just got here..."

_Its pretty early to be finished work isn't it?_

"She's one potted plant away from every person whose ever been fired on TV I gotta go." Mac nods and sets the bank box of belongings down on the couch.

Her father opens the door and leans against it looking at Mac as she said her goodbyes to Wallace.

"Am I a bad father Mac? Did I do something so wrong that she would do this to me?"

"Uh..." Mac falters and looks at her with wide eyes, "maybe you were so good that she wants to emulate you?"

He makes a noise in the back of his throat, "nice try Mac. Your parents must be so proud..." He eyes the box, "why were you fired?"

She sits down on the couch and looks between them and she doesn't pity her for getting a double dose of the Mars tell all stare.

"I'm too interesting?" She tries and her father just shakes his head and goes back into the office closing it to give them some of the limited privacy available.

Veronica leans forward over the desk that's still set up with too many monitors as far as she's concerned.

She doesn't really understand the need for all that screen but then again that's why she had Mac.

Well she also had Mac cause she loved her and stuff of course.

"Too interesting huh?"

She makes a frustrated noise and falls back into the cushions, "they are _so_ boring Veronica you wouldn't even believe , they can't be from here. No one from Neptune is that dull."

"What did you do?"

"I just wanted to find out what I was working on..." Mac is doing that coy innocent thing with her face and not actually looking at her.

"Uh huh and?"

She watches Mac get a little taller and it takes no time to realize whatever she did to get fired is something she's actually proud of.

"I broke into all of my co-workers computers to find out what they were making us do. Seriously they promised me the top team, they offered me _so_ much money, they wanted me they should have known that I don't do blind. I gave them exactly what they wanted and when I was done they fired me for being a security risk." She scoffs and Veronica can't stop the bright smile bursting across her face.

"Oh that's great."

"Yeah and then I basically told Jake Kane to fuck off and have fun fixing the program since it totally won't work the way they want it to..." She gets kind of quiet and small, "so...um... Need any tech support?" She asks and it's not hard to read how scared and nervous she is.

"Oh I don't know...Hey Dad we got room in the company for a tech genius who told Jake Kane where to go?" She yells looking at her father's shadow through the frosted glass.

"I think we can make room." Is his casual reply but she can hear the laugh in his tone.

"Great now get away from my desk before you break something." Mac smiles brightly and picks up her box-o-stuff to drop on the desk.

"I'm not going to break anything you're just paranoid." She purposely kicks a cord and suddenly everything on the screens disappears.

"Oh really?" Mac tells her hands on her hips, "and what do you call this?"

"Oh my god you're right whatever would we do without you?" She offers in her best breathy damsel voice and Mac shakes her head and gets down on all fours to reconnect the cord

The door opens and she readies herself to look professional and competent.

She sighs and sags against the chair.

It's just Dick. Probably on some Logan related errand.

Although he looks like he's going to heave, in fact he even looks sober. Or at least as sober that he can possibly be, his hair is a mess and she hates that he's got that kind of hair that still looks good messy.

Rich surfer boy hair.

He opens his mouth to say something but no sound comes out and his eyes drop and it doesn't take a private eye to know what he's staring at.

"Mac." She hisses under her breath and taps her with her foot.

"Do you realize what a hazard all these cords are Veronica? Do you want the whole place yo go up?" She kicks at her again because if Dick looks any harder at her he's going to burn a hole right through her besties skirt.

"Yeah Ronnie leave her alone she just has your safety at heart."

Mac squeaks and stands up quickly spreading her skirt down as low as is physically possible but the movement just makes Dicks eyes linger.

"Did you come here for a reason Dick?" She doesn't bother to keep the edge out of her voice. This is Dick after all. Besides he'd probably have a heart attack if she was nice to him, "or did you just come for the view?"

Dick eyes Mac and she is fairly certain he'd be eye fucking her if he wasn't so thrown and she's positive that Dick would be properly hitting on her if she was anyone else.

She snaps her fingers to pull his attention back to her.

"What do you want Dick? Is this about Logan?"

"No." He tosses the book he's holding onto the desk, "I want to hire you."

Cha Ching!

She can practically hear that beautiful cash register sound.

And she has wracked her brain all day to figure out how to fund her upcoming run for sheriff.

"I'm not cheap Dick."

Dick opens his mouth to say something rude about that but he forces his mouth closed.

He must really want her help.

"How much?" Is all he says.

"Well what's your problem."

"I found that today." He points at the book and she picks it up. It's surprisingly heavy for what looks like a journal. She flips through the ragged pages. Its filled with feminine handwriting.

It's all crappy love poems and the repeated references of sunshine and gold spun hair make it pretty clear who the muse is.

"Where did you find it?" She hands it over to Mac who leans against the shelving behind her and pours over the thing.

"In my bedroom."

"They were in your house? That's pretty bold for a stalker's first move. Normally there's some sort of escalation leading up to the break in."

"Like what? Like notes on my windshield and flowers and shit?"

"Uh yeah."

"Yeah. It's been happening for a while I just figured they were meant for Logan or they got the wrong car or whatever." He shrugs and sits down in the seat across from her

"Why would you think that?"

"Cause I'm a dick? Why would anyone stalk me? Not famous just rich, I haven't even been infamous in like a decade. I mean you've met me what about me says stalkee material?"

She can't really argue with that she can't understand it either. There were so many other men in Neptune more worthy of the kind of worship indicated by the journal.

Richer, more famous, more interesting men were not in short supply in Neptune.

She supposed he was pretty but was pretty really enough to stalk someone who was as much of an ass as Dick was? Maybe they had never actually spoken with him before, or been close enough to hear his crude comments?

"Hey,been trying to meet you. Hey, must be a devil between us or whores in my head, whores in your bed..."

Veronica turns to look at Mac who is reading out of the big ol' book of crazy.

"Why does that sound so familiar?" She asks trying to dig into the back of her brain.

"It's a Pixie's song." Dick supplies and she wishes she missed the pleased look that passes briefly across Mac's face at his recollection, "except it's not right the whores aren't supposed to be in my bed."

Mac leans forward and shows her the pages with the lyrics written out a little wrong and a lot heavy. Deep heavy black lines across the page. If this girl was surprised by the amounts of whores in Dick's bed then she was a little more nutso then she had originally thought.

Anyone who grew up in Neptune or had spent five minutes in a ladies room at a club for that matter knew exactly the kind of partner Dick was.

_A temporary one._

She looks across the desk at Dick who looks nervous and pale, there has never been any love lost between them, even before Lily's death they had tolerated each other because of the people they actually cared about and she knew she had to do that again.

Logan would never forgive her if he came back to find Dick a little on the dead side.

Plus she could really use someone with deep pockets on her side.

"I'll take the case but it's going to cost."

He sags in the care and rolls his eyes, "How much for your pixie spy magic?"

"I want you to fund my campaign."

"What campaign?" he sits up and narrows his eyes at her.

She looks across at her father's closed door and can feel the bottom of her stomach disappearing. A warm hand presses against her shoulder-blade and she knows its Mac's way of showing her support.

"I'm going to be running for Sheriff."

"Against Lamb?"

"Yes."

"Another Mars v. Lamb election? How well do you think that's going to go?"

She sets her jaw and the sharp words are forming in her mouth but before she can get anything out Mac's dark tones fill the room, "And exactly who did you vote for last time?"

Dick is silent and she's honestly not sure if it's because he voted for Vinnie and is afraid of bodily harm of if he's silent because whatever Mac is trying to get to is right.

Mac doesn't seem to have that problem reading the silence, "That's what I thought. If you really thought Lamb was competent you'd be there instead of here. So don't even start." Veronica looks between them and she tries to suppress the need to vomit because Dick is looking at Mac like if he tries hard enough she'll just lay down across the desk and hike up her skirt for him.

She had always assumed that Mac was this weird blind spot for Dick. That she wasn't an option, she wasn't even a girl in his eyes. She had assumed that Mac was safe from Dick because of the Cassidy shaped shadow that she cast. Apparently she was wrong and god she wished she wasn't.

"So cough up or have fun playing cat and mouse with your stalker. Let me know when she leaves you a note about killing the president so you two can _be__ together._"

Mac puts the book on the desk, "I'm going to go get some coffee, do you want anything?" She asks.

Veronica just shakes her head, she's already had eight cups she'll be wide awake until next week.

Mac crosses the office and asks her father if he wants any before she disappears out of the office leaving her alone with Dick.

"Okay I'm going to pretend like I didn't just watch you try to eye fuck my best friend and get right down to business, if you agree to help fund my campaign I'll make little miss crazy go away."

"Does Logan know you're running for Sheriff?"

"Not yet."

Dick makes a noise in the back of his throat and stands up, "Fine."

"Don't you want to know how much?"

"Invoice me." He turns and starts towards the office door.

"Hey where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going for dinner at Sebastian's and then I'm going to the 09er to get laid. If you think I'm going home tonight you're crazier than the chick who wrote me a book of fucking poetry."


	5. Dirty Work

**Dirty work**

* * *

Veronica is alone in the main office typing up something on the computer that takes up so much of her attention she barely looks up as the door jingles announcing that she's returned.

She's a little ashamed of basically running away from Dick but the looks he was giving her were turning her inside out.

She moves through the office to the smaller inner office that Veronica had used while she'd been working here the first time, while Keith was still laid up in the hospital.

She sets his mocha with whipped cream on the desk in front of him and his almond croissant next to it.

"Thanks Mac." He smiles up at her and she returns it.

"It's not very detectivey." She tells him as he pokes happily at the whipped topping, "I thought pi's were all about black coffee and cigarettes?"

He leans back carefully in his chair and looks at her, "how bout you do the black coffee and I'll get a pack of those chocolate cigarettes and we call it Squaresville doll face."

She bites back a laugh but nods. She obviously has to work on her private eye lingo. She thinks she has an old copy of _The Thin Man_ in her apartment somewhere.

She stops short just outside the office door.

God can she still afford that apartment? Working for Keith is going to be more personally satisfying for sure but her bank account is going to certainly suffer.

She sits down in front of the desk that should be hers and waits for Veronica to decide to pay attention to her.

She was paid up until the end of the month and she wasn't locked into the apartment thank god.

Looks like she should stop unpacking.

"How does this sound, _hey Logan. Guess who has two thumbs and is running for sheriff?_ Does that sound okay?" She asks pulling her attention to her.

"Not really how about _dear sugatbeat, after a lengthy debate with several people whose opinions I hold in high esteem I have decided to run for sheriff. Hopefully by the time you return we will be able to use my uniform for sexy times. Love Bobcat?"_

"Ha ha no way he'll know something is wrong if I call him sugarbeat and he'd never believe that I talked to people about this first. How about _remember that time you told me you thought I'd look hot in a uniform well your going to be able to find out for sure and remember to vote Mars for sheriff."_

"How about _Logan. I'm running for sheriff. Love Veronica_."

Veronica nods and starts typing and she must send the short email off because all of her attention is now on her.

"So how are you going to break it to your parents about losing your job at Kane?"

"I figure next month I just show up at their door with all my worldly possessions and remind them that they love me more."

"Why would you do that?"

"Have you seen my new apartment?"

"Yeah its super nice..."

"Yeah guess what my zip is?"

"Oh no..."

"Yep I sure can't afford my shiny modernist 09er apartment. With its energy-efficient appliances and hardwood and in suite laundry."

"Rough."

"Yeah." She shrugs and tries not to sound as scared and panicked as she is, "so Dick hired you?"

"Yeah...we need to deal with this I guess. How do you feel about spending the night with me?"

She puts a hand to heart, "Its sweet of you to offer your body up to help me make rent, your place or mine?" She smirks at Veronica who almost chokes on her drink.

"I think we should put the porn on the back burner for now Debbie and just start with a stake out, at least until after the election."

"Well okay but your missing out. I'll have you know I was _very_ good at my sexy phase in college."

* * *

"So...this is a stake out huh?" She asks flopping forward onto her steering wheel her eyes focused on the large windows of Sabastian's.

She's only been in town for a couple of months but she figured out pretty quick that the best restaurant was practically an 09er only affair.

It had the best vegan menu in town too and she hated the back of Dicks stupid head for being in there.

"Yep. Welcome to the life." Veronica spreads her arms like she's the godfather or something.

She has her feet up on the dash and an old police manual in her lap.

"The movies make it look so much better than this..."

"That's because they skip all the boring sitting around parts and only show the sexually charged banter and stuff." Veronica shrugs and stuffs the last slice of pizza into her face.

"Does this mean were supposed to have sexually charged banter?" She asks watching as the whores with Dick and Sean barely touch their meals.

Fucking waste.

"Meh. You going to each the rest of your taco."

She pulls her eyes away from the back of Dicks head, "I absolutely am." She swats her hands away from her taco. She's been craving this taco for days no way she was going to let Veronica get her paws on it.

She pulls the Styrofoam container into her lap.

"Okay so we need to put this tracer on Dicks car and this bug in his car." She holds up two small items. She must have access to the good stuff again  
because they don't look like much, and they certainly don't look like Charlie would be handing them out to super models.

"So how exactly do you want to do that?"

"I'm not." She smiles brightly and she knows where this is going before Veronica tries to force the hardware into her hands, "You are."

"You know I'm tech support right?"

Veronica softens a little and it's a startling thing to see, she's sure that Veronica has been working very hard to harden herself back up ever since she decided not to go back to New York but seeing it in such an enclosed space hit her right in the heart.

"If I get elected-"

"_When_."

Veronica's eyes drops and she bites back a self-conscious smile, "_When _I get elected Dad is going to need help and I want you to be prepared."

"What kind of help?" She asks but she takes the tracker and the bug anyway because no matter what kind of help she's going to be expected to provide she knows she'll do it. She's been friends with Veronica long enough to know when she asked you to go into the field Veronica had your back and she was fairly certain she had learned that particular trait from her father.

"Its my dad so he won't make you do nearly half the stuff I would. Probably just planting some hardware, leg work when his having trouble..."

She puts her hand over Veronicas, "It'll be okay Veronica. I got this." She tells her firmly and gets out of the car and starts across the street

She's got this? What the hell is she thinking? She doesn't have this? She wants the step by step tutorial for fuck sakes.

She takes a look at the parking lot of the restaurant. God they all look the same. Dark sports cars, all screaming entitled assholes and none of them seem to have any discerning features no _I break for pipeline_ or surf paraphernalia or even fuzzy dice.

She's going to need to talk to Dick. Have him lead her to his car so she can plant this stuff.

She tries to straighten her clothes, still the pencil skirt and button up she'd been fired in. She takes a steadying breath and enters the restaurant.

She stands as straight as possible and looks down at the hostess, a cute blonde little thing that's eyeing her clothing.

"Can I help you?" She can just tell by the girls tone that she's 09 whose parents are forcing her to work to create character. God she had not missed that about Neptune.

"Yes. Tell Mr. Casablancas that he's needed outside." The words drip with a disdain that seems to put the girl in her place.

"And who should I say the message is from?"

"Cindy." She says without skipping a beat and turns on her expensive heels and leaves the restaurant. God it had smelt so good.

She looks across the street to Veronica whose watching confused.

She's got this. She has to because she needs a job and no doubt she's been blacklisted by now. No head hunters are going to be coming around now. Not when it could anger the great King Kane.

She's thinking about what she can sell to try to keep her apartment when an arm wraps around her waist.

"I was hoping it was you." Dick whispers into her ear and whatever had been keeping him from properly coming on to her earlier is gone because his mouth is most certainly on her ear, his tongue hot and wet against her skin, "Ronnie got you doing the dirty work?" His teeth nip at her ear and her breathing gets heavy without her permission, "I have some dirty work you could do."

"Car." She yelps out and twists out of his loose grip, "Can we go to your car?"

The smirk that spreads across his face makes it clear what he thinks is going to happen once they get to the car and if she was an outsider she'd probably think that's what was going to happen too. She can feel her skin heating up and her breath is coming a little more quickly than she'd like.

He wraps a hand around hers and leads her to the car. He even opens the passenger door for her. She tries not to notice how heavy his gaze is on her as she gets in.

While he's walking around the car to the other door she presses the listening device into the fabric on the visor.

She gets out of the car as he gets in and she slaps the tracker under the bumper on her way back to her car.

She gets into her car and Veronica is looking at her strangely.

"What?"

"What just happened?"

"All the damn cars looked the same..."

_I don't know where you put it but I know you put a bug in here _Cindy_. Hope you enjoy the show._

Dicks voice crackles across the radio.

"That's kind of ominous..." Veronica grumbles cracking another can of pop.

"He's just bitchy because he thought something was going to happen." She waves it away but she can still feel the heat of his breath on her skin.

"So is it?"

"Is what?" She asks as they watch Dick walk back into the restaurant.

"Going to happen?"

"What?"

"Sex. Are you going to have sex with Dick?" Veronica blurts out and she looks away from the restaurant to look at the small blond in her passenger seat.

"Why would you even think that was a possibility?"

She shrugs, "I don't know he seems pretty interested in what's under your skirt and its been a while hasn't it?"

Mac sags back into her seat, "Is this the sexually charged conversation we're going to have Veronica? When the last time I got horizontal was?"

"I guess so." Veronica sits up in her seat and puts her seatbelt on. Mac notices that the group is on the move and she does her belt up as well.

"Yeah its been a while but not because offers haven't come up okay? If I was desperate for a lay I would have let that creepy guy at Kane software do what he detailed in a very inappropriate email."

"Inappropriate email? Those are my favourite." Veronica claps and turns the radio up to catch Dicks conversation as they drive away.

She keeps two cars behind and in the other lane. Just like she's seen in spy shows.

The topic of creepy Joshua broken by the conversation between Dick and Sean.

Dick is calling dibs on the brunette. He thinks he's going on a brunette kick and Veronica looks sidelong at her but doesn't say anything.

_What's up Dick?_

_Nothings up._

_You are a shit liar._

_Bullshit I'm a great liar... _

_..._

_okay so I might have a __stalker_

_No way really?_

_Yeah..._

_You think its Melanie?_ _She had more than her fair share of crazy man._

Veronica writes the name down.

_No way you know she's a nun now._

Veronica scribbles the name out.

_No! Really?_

They talk the rest of the way to the 09er about _Sister Melanie_ and how neither would mind taking another run at that as long as she kept the outfit on.

"Pigs." She grumbles pulling into a space down the street from Dicks car. They all walk into the club without an issue. She's pretty sure that Dick high fives the bouncer.

"Okay so what now? She could be in there drugging him and dragging him to her trophy basement as we speak."

"You sound worried."

"I'm worried about your funding."

"Oh right I forgot that we actually need him alive." She smirks, "Okay you got your dancing shoes on?"

"What?"

"You're going in to keep eyeball. I have my phone out and loud so if you need me just call."

"Why can't you go in?"

"Because I'll get bounced. They know me. You're just some hot chick with that better than you tell-tale 09er attitude."

"I am?"

"You better be. Our meal ticket could be getting skinned in the bathroom right now." She tells her with dramatic arm movements. Sometimes she thinks Veronica missed her true calling as a soap opera star, "plus you are rocking that business look Mac-attack."

She raises an eyebrow at her.

"What? Dick looked like he wanted to fuck you right there on the side walk."

"Dick would fuck a horse if you put a skirt on it." She tells her but opens her door anyway.

"Here put this on him." She hands her another listening device, "try to do it without him knowing." Veronica smiles, "for practice."

God she's just bubbling and she knows that she can't turn her down. She takes the bug and a handful of money and he id from her purse.

"Fine but I'm drinking on the job."

"Welcome to the biz kido." Veronica smiles and then get eyes get bright, "Ooo! Try and get a receipt! We'll charge it back to Dick later."

She's trying to channel her inner 09er bitch as she walks across the street undoing a couple of buttons before she walks right passed the bouncer and right into the club.

_Okay how the hell did she do that_. She had fully expected to have to talk her way into the club but she's in and honestly it's a bit of a let down.

It's a mass of expensive clothing and horrible people. Pouring their trust funds down their throats.

Although she wouldn't mind a drink herself.

Moving towards the bar she spots Dick. Its impossible not to find him. He's this big bright thing that just pulls and she knows she's not the only girl in the room to feel it. In fact she can see three potential poets right now.


	6. Safe Ride (M)

**Safe Ride (M)**

* * *

She's easy to pick out at the bar.

He knew that Veronica would force Mac into this one too. Veronica was too known, too attention grabbing there were at least a hand full of girls in the room that would give over their designer handbags to go a round with Ronnie.

Mac however. Mac was virtually an unknown. Just some hot girl straight from work in the need of a drink and maybe some company.

God he hoped company, he feels like going home with her would not only be safer and stalker free but also fucking amazing.

"So who do you think it could be?" Sean asks leaning into him. He only ever hangs out with Sean when Logan's out of town. Its easier that way. Sean thankfully doesn't seem to mind all that much. Maybe its easier for him too.

"If I knew this wouldn't be a problem now would it?"

Sean shrugs and leans away from him.

There were too many possibilities. Too many scorned women to wrap his head around and that wasn't even taking into account the girls he hadn't gotten with that had maybe desperately wanted to.

He was just too good-looking.

Because it had to be a looks thing he wasn't stupid he knew he wasn't the most interesting person to talk to or to keep a conversation with.

"Hey isn't that Ghostworld?" Sean points to the dance floor where Mac is losing herself in the thumping bass of whatever the hell is playing.

"Yeah..."

"How did she get in here?"

"Look at her Sean that's how she got in here." That and he told the bouncer that his super hot secretary was supposed to meet him here.

Sean makes a noise in the back of his throat that's supposed to be non-committal, "What's with you and the nerdy type recently?"

Dick shrugs, "They fucking slay in the sack man, your missing out. Girls that know they're hot just fucking lay there wondering whose getting killed in _Game__ of Thrones_ next. Girls that don't know they're hot or didn't get hot until late are actually like present and shit."

"If you say so man." Sean steps away from him towards Mac. Something in Dick just fucking clamps down and he puts a hand on Sean's arm and pulls him back.

"I told you brunettes are mine tonight." He smirks and makes his way through the crowd to her. She's not doing a very good job of looking for his stalker dancing like that but he'll let it slide because he's pretty sure he can actually get somewhere with adrenaline and gin Mac.

She barely acknowledges that he's there. His hand slides across her hip and pulls her in close to him and the thumping bass is slamming around his body and he thanks god that he's tall because he can see right down her shirt.

He loved being tall, she didn't have much to offer in the cleavage department but honestly he didn't really care when she had her hands on him. Sliding up his shirt. Her hands up into his hair.

He bent down so his mouth was on her ear again. She shuddered when he did that and he was pretty sure she had no idea she did.

"If you wanted to get wasted on my dime I would have bought you a drink." He whispers into her. She has one had tangled into his hair and the other is roaming across his body. She's tugging a little on his hair and her body is pressed up against him and fuck he wants to move this somewhere else. So he can be alone with her, hell he'd settle for just mostly alone.

His hand runs up the fabric of her skirt the tight little thing that he just wants to rip off her. Cut up the side of her, rip her nylons and just...just...

Fuck he was getting hard just thinking about it.

"Dick..." She whispers and it drives right into him even with all the loud thumping bass and loud talking, her voice sounds deep and breathy and _god_.

"Yeah?"

"Don't be mad." She pulls away from him and her eyes are dark and her mouth drops in outrage at something, a faked rage flickers across her and her hand comes slicing through the air and right across his cheek.

He watches her storm away and fuck he's left on the dance floor with a burning cheek and a hard on that's throbbing painfully for release. Fuck that was hot. She can slap him around any time.

He cracks his jaw and moves back to where Sean is waiting with a smirk that could be seen from god damn space.

"What the fuck are you smiling at?" He asks taking the drink offered. He looks at the open drink for a long time before he puts it down and takes Sean's instead.

"Dude." He grumbles taking the drink he'd offered Dick instead of his own, "And I'm smiling at how you struck out with Ghostworld of all people."

"Like you could have done better." He hisses.

"Oh I totally could."

"Bullshit."

They devolve into a comfortable conversation about who has better game. It's obviously him. Sean's moves remind him of a casting couch. Like girls do it to further their career not because they'd actually enjoy it. Girls fuck him because he's an adventure. Well probably because he's hot but still.

A pretty brunette keeps catching his eye from across the room and while he would rather fuck Mac he is absolutely not going home tonight and he refuses to go home with Sean. It's a matter of honor.

* * *

Its getting late and the girl is primed. Her hands grabbing at him, her legs moving in that desperate need of fiction kind of way and her kissing is getting frantic.

They tumble out into the night air and his hands are feeling out the curves of her body as he leads her to his car.

He has her pressed up against his car when he notices Mac across the street pretending not to notice. He pulls her hair aside and nips at her neck causing the girl to moan and squirm against him.

His hand follows the trail of her dress until his fingers meet with skin and her fingers twist in his shirt.

"Dick..." She moans out soft in his ear and it speeds up his heartbeat.

His hand slides across soft hot skin to the damp bit of fabric keeping him away. He shifts it easily out of the way and presses a finger deep into her.

The sound she makes is amazing a breathy gasp of a thing but the flushed look on Macs face across the street is better.

He wonders when the last time someone touched her like this was. The last time someone made her knees weak. The last time she'd been filled up, the last time she'd begged for more.

He slides another finger into her and the noises she makes hitch and her head falls back.

Her hand is grabbing desperately for the door handle grabbing the handle and his shoulder as her body tightens around his fingers.

He pulls his fingers out of her and skilfully wipes them against her leg without her even caring about anything other than having him touch her again.

He opens the door for her and she slips into the back-seat. He can't stop the smirk spread across his face as Mac looks at him wide-eyed.

He hopes she enjoys the show.

Getting into the back seat the girl pushes him back into the seat and is working on his pants the zipper feels loud in the panting silence of the car.

The girls underwear is off and on the seat next to him as she straddles him her hands between them sliding a condom on no doubt from her open purse.

He closes his eyes tightly as the girl slides down onto him. The girl replaced by Macs tight little body.

He groans in tandem with the girl as he bottoms out. Her mouth is on his neck and he opens his eyes to see long brown hair and shoulder and he can see Mac still watching mesmerized across the street.

She can hear him too.

Naughty girl.

The little amount of blood that was keeping his brain functioning rushes away at the thought of her sitting in the car across the street with her hand up her skirt.

He manoeuvres with the skill of someone practised in car sex so the girl is flat on her back and he's thrusting down into her his eyes flicking between her and the girl across the street.

She's moaning and gasping under him pressing up against him as he thrusts down.

She's a good lay. In fact if he didn't want Mac so badly she might even qualify for a repeat. The way her fingers dig into him and her moving against him like that. But she keeps shifting in his mind to Mac. Flat on her back under him her nylons torn to hell her skirt ripped and there's a rage in her that fuels her frantic movements.

Don't say her name.

Don't say her name.

The girl beneath him comes in an arching moaning mess his name in her mouth in a wonderfully natural way, breathy and half said.

He looks up at Mac and she's not looking at him anymore. She's leaning back in her seat her eyes closed and he just knows she's picturing her in the car with him instead of this girl whose name he's not even sure of.

"Look at me." The words fall out of his mouth.

Mac's eyes open and look right god damn into him and he loses it. Pressing hard into the girls body he fills the condom and huffing leans against the door looking down at the girl.

Joan?

"So my room-mate is out-of-town if maybe you were up for another round..." She bites her lip looking up at him and yeah he is and even if he wasn't he'd still say yes.

"Sounds good." He leans down and kisses her. Girls like that he's discovered after all this time. It makes them feel not cheap or some shit.

They untangle and he gets out of the car doing his pants back up he rounds the car to the driver's side and gets in. Joan? has squirmed her way into the passenger seat and they drive off.

He listens to her directions and watches Mac follow them. She's two cars back probably practising for a real tail job.

She shouldn't practice on him. He's acutely aware of her even thou he'd really rather not be. That was the love of his brothers short life for fuck sakes. He kept the two connected in his mind out of respect maybe? Out of fear probably because if Mac could make Cassidy _feel_ he had this feeling she'd pull him headlong into actual adulthood and he'd really rather not.

But god she was just really hot today.

That ass seriously what the fuck? And that mouth on her... He'd always known about that thou but getting rough with him?

Fuck. Yes please.

He slid his hand up the girl's dress and up into the still soaked core of her.

He's rewarded with a breathy moan and her legs spread more for him.

Bless her heart she's still trying to give directions. The last turn comes out in a long moan as she comes her nails scratching the leather interior.

Meh.

Not the first time.

"Can I keep you?" She asks breathlessly as they get out of the car in front of her modest building.

"Maybe." He shrugs and she laughs a little leading him into the building.

She's all over him in the elevator and he tries to focus on sex but honestly he's fucking tired.

She's fishing for her keys when the door rips open.

"Jennifer where the fuck have you been?" The man holding the door is trying very hard not to yell.

Must be the room mate.

"Teddy!" She yelps and he has the distinct feeling that room mate isn't quite right.

"Who is this?" He points angrily at Dick and fuck this. He does _not_ want to deal with boyfriend/fiancé/husband/whatever.

She opens her mouth no doubt to spin some terrible thin lie.

"Safe ride." Dick supplied and the man wavers a little confused, "have a good night." He smiles at them and takes his leave.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

Where the hell was he supposed to stay now cause he sure as fuck wasn't staying at stalker central.

He gets into his car and puts his head against the steering wheel.

He looks up across the street where Mac is sitting.

He takes a shaking breath, "Mac...I know you can hear me...I just..can I..." He grips the wheel, "can I stay at your place?"

He can practically hear the look she must be giving him from here.

"I swear I won't try anything I just don't want to go home...that...they've been in my house Mac..."

There's a flash of light and it takes a long moment to realize that Macs flashed her lights at him in response.

"Thank you." He tells the car because he knows he won't be able to actually form the words when she's beside him.


	7. Cigarette butts

**Veronica- Cigarette butts**

* * *

Veronica had gotten a sadly missed phone call that had lead to a rather urgent voicemail from Logan demanding, as politely as possible in what sounded like a frantic state, to call or Skype or teleport or have an out of body experience and talk to him as soon as possible.

Apparently her email yesterday hadn't been satisfactory.

So she's drying her hair and waiting for her ancient computer to get with the program.

She's fresh from a shower, she had been woken up rather rudely at five that morning by Wallace and stuffed into some sweats she hadn't even known were still here (pirate pride!) and forced out onto the street to, of all things, jog.

When she had mentioned that she was worried about turning her lawyer body into a sheriff body apparently Wallace had taken it as an invitation.

Logan came into view and her breath caught a little bit just like every time she'd seen him in the tabloids while getting groceries for years.

"Hey..." She smiled and god she wished she could touch him.

"Sheriff Mars I presume?" His voice came across her speakers kind of tinny and it pained her. She wanted the rich tones of his voice to wash over her, to have his fingers trail across her skin again.

She was growing more and more sure that she couldn't last. She was sure she could find a way to break him out for some well deserved nookie.

"I haven't thrown my hat in just yet...I have to pass the physical first..."

"You'll be fine. You've got Coach Wallace..." He trails off and looks right into the core of her like only he could, "I'm sorry I wish I could be there."

It's true. Even through the screen she can see it.

"I know."

_I wish you could be here, too._

He bites back a smile and she wonders if maybe he can hear her thoughts, or maybe they've just been playing this _I love you but I don't know how to say it_ game for so long that he can read it in the silence.

"You know that being Sheriff has rules right? That you can't just break in to get the evidence you know is there anymore? You know that right?"

"Logan...I know how the law works. You know what I went to school for right?" She sighs and rolls her eyes.

"I'm just checking. You're sure you want to do this?"

She looks at him; he's in a jumpsuit or a flight suit whatever it is he looks way too good.

"Yes Goose I'm sure. It's not the reason I came back and it's not the reason I stayed but maybe it's..."

"Destiny? Fate? Your calling?"

"It sounds stupid when you say it like that." She grumbles.

"No. No it's not." Logan's voice gets loud and sharp like he wants her to really pay attention to him, "they say that communities get the criminals they deserve and the law enforcement they demand and Neptune doesn't deserve you Veronica not for a second and it never did, but it needs you. I would vote for you a million times if I could."

"Logan..."

"I mean it."

"I know."

He looks nervous and she can't imagine why. They've gone through the 'what you're doing with your life' part of the conversation all ready. It should all be snark and come-ons now.

"Can you do me a favor?"

"I already told you I'm not sending you naked pictures."

He laughs a little and it washes away some of his nervousness.

"Yes while I am bereft about that," he puts a hand to his heart, "I mean, what is supposed to remind me of what I'm fighting for?"

Veronica bites back a smile but when she opens her mouth to return his banter his face gets serious.

"Can you go over and check on Dick? I know you don't really care if he's pulling a rock star and drowning in the pool or in his own vomit or anything, but I do."

She'll go. She had planned on going anyway to try and get some fingerprints or at the very least some information out of the drunk blonde.

"He's probably just asleep."

"I always call him before he goes surfing on Wednesdays...he knows that...he always takes the call."

"Why are you so worried Logan? I'm sure he's just baked on the couch, passed out, or surfing."

"Yeah well Dick has had some over enthusiastic..._lovers_ in the past."

That brings every train of thought to a screeching halt.

"Overenthusiastic as in he's tied to a chair or overenthusiastic as in restraining order?"

"Sometimes both." He shrugs but he looks a little worried and she can't help herself to just word vomit the events of yesterday all over the patchy connection.

"So you're using my best friend's _Swimfan_ issue to fund your campaign?"

"Yes..." She winces because he looks just this side of frantic.

"You are going to actually stop the stalker right? You're not just going to string him along to make sure that he pays the banner and button bills right?"

"Of course I am Logan. The way I'm having him pay is a little unorthodox, but he's still a client." she tells him pulling out her lawyer tone.

"Thank you Veronica." He says softly, some of the worry in him melting at her stern, professional tone, "Do you want a list of the crazies?" Logan asks and while she's disappointed that they are wasting all of their 'almost together time' on Dick, she nods and puts a pen to her palm, "You'll need your whole arm if you're going to do that."

"That many?" She asks pulling a legal pad from.

Logan sighs on the other end of the connection, "You know how he feels about repeat business."

* * *

Armed with a list of possible murder-walling crazies she heads over to the beach house.

The key doesn't work.

She has to admit she's surprised that Dick had been in the right mind to even think about changing the lock. It unfortunately means that Logan's house keys won't let her in and if she's correct Dick is just out cold on some random piece of furniture and wouldn't hear her knocking.

She can see through the big windows that the door to the garage is open.

She jingles the keys in her hand and easily pulls out the key to Logan's car, sitting lonely in the drive way.

The garage door opener is hidden under Logan's seat, she has to pause in the car and let the smell of Logan wash over her.

It was strange sitting in the car without him; just like it had been strange staying those extra couple of nights at the beach house with Dick after Logan had left. It felt wrong being in this place without him.

The house is empty.

Not that she is all that surprised. Dick had been pretty adamant about not spending the night here and having him here would have been far too convenient for her, and Dick had never been convenient.

Comparing the conversations between herself and Dick yesterday, and Logan this morning she looks at every window a little more carefully for evidence of tampering.

Dick had been sure that all the weird things that happened, the random flowers and gifts, the phone calls of breathing had all been for Logan, who in her opinion as well was far more likely to be stalked.

However according to Logan, Dick's easy charm and casual sex had lead more than one piece of crazy into a restraining order on Dick's behalf. It was amazing what a little green could get done for you around here these days.

Dick attracted the crazies.

There was no evidence of tampering with the windows or doors; however, there was a small pile of cigarette butts on the balcony off of Dicks empty bedroom.

It seems that the stalker had been waiting for Dick to come home. Veronica found herself glad that he had found some poor little thing that had been willing to accommodate him for the night.

Okay it was time to actually get to business.

Dick was her benefactor after all. It wouldn't do for the well to dry up before she'd started making withdrawals. She hadn't been lying to Logan about treating Dick like a client since that's what he was. It was just hard to believe that this was serious.

The pile of discarded cigarettes certainly helped as an image of a girl standing on the other side of that glass with a cigarette in one hand and a snub nose .38 in the other waiting with wide, crazy eyes for Dick to come back hit her.

Plus she found that her stomach was twisting at the thought of Dick finally ending up in his very own sex tape. She had an awful feeling the genre might be snuff; especially if Dick had not come home alone.

She leaves as quickly as possible making sure to watch the garage door until it hit the dirt and lock Logan's car.

She'll take the list of potentials over to Mac and they'll go at it like March Madness until they find the girl that smokes Virginia Slims Menthol Lights and was crazy enough to think that Dick Casablancas is the love of her life.

She just hoped it was a repeat offender;, it would make it so much easier.

* * *

The drive to Mac's apartment is surprising short since she and Dick now live in the same zip code. So short that she has time to grab a couple of coffees and still be ungodly early.

Okay, not quite ungodly, but she would much rather not have so many hours of awake under her belt at 8:30.

She cons her way into the secure building with a classic can't reach my key card hands full of coffee maneuver. The doorman was of the grandfatherly, 'ex-forces' type rather than the haughty 'better than you' guys with light accents from nowhere type that big fancy buildings such as this seemed to import.

The old man even pressed the floor button for her and everything.

Maybe she should move in with Mac...

Help her with rent...

That would, however, leave her father alone, which she just couldn't bring herself to do so early after he'd been released from the hospital.

She kicks to knock on the door to the apartment and waits. She has no idea how long Mac had been out following Dick but figured that a nine o'clock wakeup call wasn't out of the question.

She'd fallen asleep sometime after Sean and Dick's in depth discussion about who had better game and had woken up in her bed. In her opinion neither had any game, but Mac had come back from the club red in the face and trying desperately to slow her breathing, so maybe the answer was Dick.

She kicks again and shifts her weight. She's not a big fan of standing in the hall with the cups of fancy barista coffee, the heat was cutting easily through the paper and right into her hands.

"Come on I know you're in there, the car's outside!" She yells through the door caring less and less about Mac's neighbors.

There's a noise on the other side of the door and when it finally opens she really rather it hadn't.

Dick is standing there rubbing sleep out of his eyes in just a pair of boxers and some socks.

_Holy shit had Mac actually!_

She'd mostly been kidding about her having sex with Dick. Sure she wanted to live vicariously through her while Logan was oh so far away and she was here...alone...but...shit.

Maybe it's nothing?

"What are you doing here?" She asks as he reaches out and grabs one of the coffees from her.

"I told you I wasn't going home." He shrugs and turns his back on her like that answers her question. Like it's obvious what he's doing there and _oh my god she had sex with him didn't she!_

"You... you and Mac..." she tries to confirm. Sure she's glad that he hadn't gone home last night after finding out that someone had been waiting for him but _this?! _The worst thing might be the smug smile he throws at her, over his shoulder, as he sets down the cup of coffee.

She sets her coffee down as well and drops her purse to the floor.

"Where's Mac?" she asks slowly and there's something dangerous in her voice. She hadn't intended to put there, but she doesn't mind all that much since it causes Dick to actually turn to look at her.

"In bed still probably," She looks towards the closed bedroom door, something dark and animal flits across his face before he schools it into the lazy satisfied look she so often sees on him, "She had a _long _night, if you know what I mean."

Like it was possible to not know what he meant.

"Dick..."

The smile on his face is bright and large and cat like, "Four words, Ice. Cream. Paint. Jo-"

She sends her fist into his chest before he can finish the disgusting sentence, she would have preferred his face but, well, he was almost a foot taller than her.

She's not sure where the anger comes from, but she goes in for another shot only to have Dick block it and yell out for Mac.


	8. Barricade

**Vote mars -Barricade**

* * *

There's a bark of noise outside her door, somewhere in the apartment and she knows that she can't ignore this one as well.

She can't let him have free reign of _her_ damn apartment. It was still hers for a little while longer and she wouldn't be losing her damage deposit just because he couldn't handle a hangover with the lethargic apathy it deserved.

She throws on the first clean thing she finds and moves to the bedroom door.

She unlocks it and kicks the chair back towards the vanity.

She's ashamed of that chair, she had practically barricaded herself into the room the second after she had thrown a blanket and pillow at the couch and pointed to the bathroom door. She was ashamed because she knew what it was.

It wasn't for fear that he'd take liberties with her hospitality.

It's that she wanted him to.

That she had locked herself in only to unlock and relock the door five times in varying states of dress. She had actually opened that door and looked out into the dim , throwing a half naked shadow across the back of the couch. Thankfully she had come to her senses and closed the door before he had noticed. She had pressed the chair up against the handle to keep herself in because she wanted him, wanted him to make her make the same kind of sounds he'd brought out of that girl in his backseat.

She wanted it so badly in fact, that she had taken matters into hand to try and sate herself, to satisfy that need for friction and filling and heat.

Tangled in her bedding the better part of the night and once again in the morning, with a little mechanical help, trying to steer her mind away from the feel of his hands, breath, and the sounds he makes.

In the end she had settled with just not letting his name slide past her lips when she'd climaxed.

She whips open the door expecting to find Dick in the shattered remains of her couch, or struggling with her imported coffee maker, or just generally making a mess of the place. She did not expect for Dick to be dodging punch after, shockingly flailing, punch as Veronica bore down on him.

"Mac!" Dick yelped out trying to catch Veronica's fists and she was ashamed that she had logged that startled yelp away for future use, "Tell her I was joking! Tell her I didn't, that we didn't..."

A punch lands square in his chest and he staggers into the wall.

"Veronica stop! We didn't do anything. He didn't touch me."

_Unfortunately_

_Stop that!_ She berates herself as Veronica looks away from her assault to inspect Mac. She can see Dick doing the same, and the smirk that spreads across his face pools heat in her in a way that her body shouldn't even be thinking about after what she'd done last night. She hated every fiber of him, for a brief moment, for being some libido recharging anomaly because at that second she wants his hands all over her.

She closes the distance between herself and the blondes and grabs onto Veronica's arm, dragging her easily into her bedroom, "If you need us we'll be in my room experiencing the kind of love that can only be shared between two women." She pauses to put the moan he makes into the bank before she closes the door.

She leans against the door and looks at Veronica who is examining her punching hand to ensure no permanent damage had been done.

"So do you want to tell me what's going on here or should I believe Dick when he says he..." She physically cringes, "gave you an ice cream paint job?"

"Ice cream what?"

Veronica opens her mouth to explain but Mac holds up her hand, she really doesn't want to know; doesn't want to have more fuel for the fire burning in the back of her mind even now.

"He asked if he could stay..."

"And you let him?" Veronica just can't seem to wrap her head around it, there's a hint of humor wrapped around her confusion and she just knows she's filing this away to gush to Logan later.

_Pair of gossips._

She moves to the dresser, sliding the chair back into its home on her way, "it was pathetic Veronica, he even carried you into your house. You're dad was so confused."

"Well that explains how I got to bed. I was a little worried you had dragged me out of the car by the arms, slamming my unconscious body around all slapsticky."

Mac can't help but smile at the image as she pulls a couple of shirts out of her dresser.

"I promise to never do a slapstick bit while you're unconscious."

"Good." Veronica nods happily, the smile on her face is bright and easy, and she knows it's coming before it arrives, her fingers tap an invisible cigar as she proceeds to wag her eyebrows at her suggestively.

"Alright Groucho which of these says: I know what I'm doing, I'm a hard boiled private dick with a weakness for gin and dames with sob stories and legs that go on for days?"

"Man that's a lot for a shirt to say, but definitely the blue one. The polo is too country club to be hard boiled. We want Bogie to play you, not Chevy Chase."

"I like Fletch..." She mumbles but tosses the polo back into the open drawer.

She pulls the silk slip she'd thrown on across the room and gets dressed.

Veronica leans back in her bed and regales her with what she's done since she'd been rudely awakened by the one and only Coach Wallace.

"If you didn't want him to start a regiment for you, you shouldn't have said anything." She tells Veronica half in her closet, fishing out a skirt from the back that she thinks will go well, "I once told him I was having trouble getting rid of my freshman fifteen and he made me take up tennis."

She tosses her racquet onto the bed next to Veronica as if to prove it.

There are tennis whites in the back of this closet. She's actually not all that bad or at least she's better than some of the other singles at the club.

She pauses in her search at that.

_The club?_

Maybe it's for the best that she'll be out of this zip code before long, if she stays who knows what would happen. She could meet a _nice_ hedge fund manager, get married and be one of those bored trophy wives that she plays tennis against; the ones that are most definitely getting a little more than lessons from the pro on staff.

She steps into the skirt and turns to Veronica.

"I'm not a '09er right?"

Veronica pushes up from the bed.

"Of course you're not." Her voice is soft and she reaches out to Mac, but falls short.

Mac steps forward into her range and let's Veronica's hand slide slowly up and down her arm. It's oddly comforting.

"You are a good person, even if you enjoyed the occasional frivolous activity it doesn't make you a 09er and it certainly doesn't make you a bad person."

Her heart settles at that and is allowed to focus on the problem at hand.

The stalker.

"Wait did you say you talked to Logan this morning?" She looks down at Veronica trying to judge just how this particular conversation had gone.

She assumed it went fine because the moods Logan could put her in always sat on the surface of the blonde.

"I did."

There was a short silence before she realized that was all Veronica was going to say.

"What did he say?"

Veronica made an indignant noise in the back of her throat, "He reminded me that if I win the election I'm going to have to follow the rules." She sounded so affronted by the very idea, but Mac couldn't help but agree more than a little with Logan on this.

Apparently her silence was a little too telling.

Veronica's insulted look faltered for a fleeting moment before she forced the topic away from her penchant for law breaking.

"Logan said that this wouldn't be the first time our pal Dick has gotten himself a little more than he bargained for in a suitor."

"He's had a stalker before?"

Veronica raised her hand and wiggled four fingers at her.

"Four?"

Veronica nods.

"How does Dick not know about this?" She asks moving to the door. She doesn't like the idea of Dick wondering around her apartment unchecked.

"Logan paid to have the problems...go away..."

"Who'd he pay?"

She watched Veronica push away from the bed, "I guess police corruption can work in your favor if you've got the dough for it..." Veronica stops her hand on the door handle, "Do you smell something?"

"Why does it smell like breakfast..." she asks slowly watching her best friend's eyes widen, they must be coming to the same horrified conclusion that Dick is trying to cook.


	9. Rain Man (M-ish)

**Vote Mars - Rain main (M-ish)**

* * *

The bedroom door rips open and he almost drops the spatula.

"What are you doing?!" Mac yells rushing towards the kitchen, eyes wide with what is probably fear.

He steps away from the stove because if she tackles him, like it looks like she's going to, he'd rather not get hot egg substitute all over himself.

"I'm making breakfast." He tells her easily, hands up in mock surrender.

Today's outfit isn't quite as fetish feeding, the skirt is wider at the bottom and the blue button up she's wearing is done up unreasonably high. He wishes she'd go back to that silky looking number from this morning.

God...he'd had thought he was going to need to take care of _things_ after she had pulled Ronnie into her bedroom to have sex.

_Well they might have._

It had been a fantasy that had been in his rotation since college.

He liked to imagine Mac and Ronnie on a desk...papers everywhere, hair done in those WW2 rolls and stockings with the line up the back... a hot girl on girl noir.

Mac would be in trouble and need help.

Ronnie the private dick...

Mac didn't have any way to pay.

_I'm_ sure we can think of something...

_Fuck_

He bit the inside of his mouth and looked up at the ceiling. Now was certainly not the time to visit that.

Mac ripped the spatula from his hand and turned off the burner.

"You're going to burn the place down." She hissed.

"I've used a stove before Mac." He puts his hands on her shoulders and turns her to the opposite counter.

Three plates already loaded with hash browns and some weird no meat bacon he'd found in her freezer. He figured that with enough hot sauce it wouldn't matter what it was made out of. He was that hungry.

"You're making breakfast..." The words are slow out of her mouth and she's shocked enough that he easily takes the spatula back and turns the burner back on.

"I own a house Mac. It has a kitchen."

"Yeah but I've never seen you use it." Veronica chimes in.

"You didn't see anything outside of Logan's bedroom and the bathroom." He tells her, thrusting into the air in front of the stove. He almost misses Mac's eyes drag across him, appraising the movement like she's cataloging it for later.

She has her back to Veronica and it's just not fair because she's looking at him like she's trying to figure out if she wants to buy the racehorse. He just knows if he says anything about it Veronica is going to go all 'Double Dragon' on his ass.

He focuses on the 'not egg' eggs. They had come out of a carton and were ridiculous.

There was no _real_ food in her fridge.

It was probably the saddest fridge he'd ever seen... carton of eggs, a small bunch of veggies, a carton of almond milk and a bottle of champagne.

He watched Ronnie and Mac congregate around the big ridiculous coffee machine. Good fucking luck. He'd stared at the big Italian fucker for a good ten minutes before Ronnie had gotten here.

"Did you want a coffee, Dick?" Mac asks softly, he wonders if she's still thrown by the fact that he's making them breakfast.

Honestly he had just been making it for himself but had ended up cooking too much 'not bacon'.

"Ah yeah..." He responds and tends to the 'eggs'.

There's a clamor of odd noises and hissing, and then a mug of coffee appears at his side.

"So did you get a list of these overzealous admirers?" Mac asks as she and Ronnie move out of the kitchen, apparently satisfied that he wasn't going to burn the place down.

"Of course I did, what do you take me for?" Ronnie scoffed and he wondered if he really wanted to be indebted to the slight blonde detective.

No he didn't, but Logan wasn't due back for months so what choice did he have? Mr. Mars was still a little on the squirrelly side so what was he to do?

He turned off the burner and divided up the 'eggs' onto the three plates.

Looking up through the pass over he watched Mac blow on her coffee. At least he'd have a chance to wear her down...or maybe if he was lucky he'd just be around when Mac wasn't thinking about anything other than how much she wanted him.

He knew she did.

Which was great because he wanted her in a way he hadn't felt in a long time, like he'd just die without her.

The longer he was around her, the more likely she'd just give in; she had almost given in last night. He'd seen the light from her bedroom thrown across the couch several times. He had pushed all intoxication aside and stood by the couch naked waiting for the door to open again.

It hadn't.

If only it hadn't taken him so long to figure out what was going on. He had missed his opportunity, but he wouldn't miss it again, even if he had to stay stone sober until she slept with him...

Okay that was crazy he obviously wasn't going to do that. Staying stone cold for however long it would take? There was no way anyone was worth that.

"Dick?" Mac's voice sliced through his thought and dug right into him, burying her cadences into him.

He looked up and made eye contact.

He expected her to flush and look away but she maintained the connection. It was a smothering dominant thing and he found himself looking quickly down.

"Did you need a hand?" She asks and he's so thrown by not being the dominant one for once that he can't even make the masturbation comment leave his throat.

"No, its fine." He manages as he picks up two of the plates and puts them in front of Ronnie and Mac.

He wondered what shade of pink she'd turn if he had managed to make the comment.

He had heard her; every smothered moan and light mechanical buzz was burned into him. Now she sat there with her back straight, her eyes hot with a confidence so uncommon in Neptune, something that couldn't be affected by her bank account, and he found that he didn't even want to break it.

He hid in the kitchen for a few short moments, searching her fridge for any form of hot sauce trying to regain control of the situation and his breathing.

When he returned to the table, they were involved in an in depth conversation about some Katerina Berchowski.

"Who's that?" He asked taking the hot sauce from Ronnie to drown his plate.

"Who's...are you serious?" Mac asked.

"I told you he wouldn't know."

"Know what?"

"May of last year, do you remember someone breaking into your car and leaving a lipstick message on the inside of the windshield?"

"Yeah..." He waves it away, "it was for Logan." He rolls his eyes at them, but they are both looking at him like he's grown a second head, "I thought you were supposed to be working on my case not on the stalkers that wanted a piece of the admiral."

"Okay you have to know that wasn't about Logan now."

"What are you talking about?"

"The message was for you." Mac tries to drive it home, but they hadn't been there. His car had been right beside Logan's and the message had been obscene, but vague.

Logan had gone to the police shortly after and everything, it was obviously for Logan.

_Right..._

But the break in had definitely been about him...

Veronica slides a picture across the table at him.

It's the blonde he'd picked up at the library; he'd been dropping off something for Logan.

He pushes it back.

"Do you know this girl, Dick?" Mac asks, eyebrow quirked like she's expecting some awful story.

"Yeah, blonde from the library, likes to be tied up." He shrugs, "I think she read 'Fifty Shades' one too many times, she let me do terrible things to her as long as I was wearing a suit." He tells her darkly with a smirk across his face, "it's too bad she didn't really have the stamina for it."

His eyes wander down away from Mac's eyes to her wet mouth.

Mac had stamina. She'd been at it all night.

"Yeah well, stamina or not, she's the one that broke into your car."

"That explains the references to Italian leather belts."

"Eww." Both girls chime in.

"What?" He asks dragging his 'no bacon' through the hot sauce, "I didn't do anything she didn't beg me for and I stopped when she passed out." He shrugged, it was just common sense. He'd been practically a gentlemen, he had even untied her from the fence.

Veronica physically shakes and makes an obviously fake retching noise.

"Does she smoke?"

"What?"

"Does she smoke?" Veronica asks again and her voice is getting that crisp edge to it.

He tries to focus back to the taste of her...raspberry lip gloss...snickers...gin...no smoke taste.

"No."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, raspberry, snickers and gin. No smoke taste."

Mac just shook her head lightly, "You don't know her name but you remember what she tastes like?"

He wishes he knew what she tasted like. She looked like she'd taste crisp and clean...lemongrass...apple maybe...probably like the surprisingly expensive champagne in the fridge.

"It's a gift."

"Alright 'Rain man'." Veronica pushes three other photos in front of his plate, "Any of these taste like smoke?"

"New Years," he separates the red head from the pack, "gave me backstage access if you know what I mean." He smirks remembering the hurried sex over the balcony railing, her stupid scratchy sequined dress up around her hips.

"Smoke?"

He shrugs, "I don't know."

"What do you mean you do know?"

"Her skin had tasted like stupid coconut lotion."

The table is silent for a long moment, "You fucked her but you didn't kiss?" Veronica asks incredulously.

"Yeah."

"That's not how it's supposed to work."

"Oh like you've never..." But Veronica is looking at him with wide, open eyes and underneath the disgust he sees something that twists his insides. _Pity._

"Mac, help me out here." He asks and it takes a fair amount of will power not to sound like he's pleading with her.

"..." She suddenly finds her hash browns very interesting.

"Mac..." Veronica asks pulling the red head out of his reach and putting her in a separate pile than '50 shades of raspberry'.

"It only happened once."

"Who?" She asks excitedly and he wonders if he's just melted into the background at the prospect of this juicy gossip, which is fine with him because he also wants to know all about it.

"Just some guy at a concert."

_Fuck_.

The image of Mac bent over in a grungy bathroom stall her skirt up around her hips, her panties pulled down for access, smash into him, sending a fair amount of blood south.

"You didn't even know his name?" Veronica asks and he finds it hilarious that she finds the thing so scandalous. She has a circulating sex tape for fuck sake.

Mac just shrugs, "His girlfriend's name was Lisa."

"His girlfriend!? You little home wrecker!" Veronica's burst is filled with the same kind of gossip-induced joy that gets all of the regular girls he knows, and it's such a weird thing thinking of Veronica as a regular girl.

"What? She was there and she tasted like smoke and vodka slime." She shrugs like it's no big deal and stands from the table, her empty plate in her hand.

Veronica follows suit and he's left sitting at the table alone, his fork hovering above the plate, a completely different vision filling up his brain.

Mac in the middle of some couple's daring public romp.

He imagined that Lisa, who had transformed into that hot French girl he'd seen at the beach last week, had practically seduced Mac. Mouth crashing on hers in that weird, euphoric, adrenaline haze that can happen at really good concerts.

_Hot hands pushing up Mac's shirt, Lisa's leg hard between her legs._

_Mac, not willing to be such a melting participant, pulling them out of the crowd, slamming the girl into the wall._

_Mouth on the French girl's neck, teeth scraping out long low moans._

_'My __boyfriend...'_

_Lisa moaned out, her hand lifting from Mac's breast to point at the boyfriend._

_Mac pulling away thinking that she had misread the situation, the flushed worried confusion on her face so cute._

_Lisa's hands pull her close again, a hand finding its way up her skirt, seeking out the hot damp proof that Mac was willing._

_'I __want __you'_

_She would whisper into her ear with a slight accent._

_'But __your __boyfriend...'_

_'He __want __you __too...'_

_There would be a moment of hesitation before Mac's eyes burnt with confidence, grabs the girl's hand and pulls her quickly to the bathroom, the boyfriend following behind..._

_A hot adrenaline powered mess of limbs and wet mouths; they lock themselves into an empty stall._

_There's no more talking, just hands and Mac, the ever prepared, pulling a condom out of her skirt pocket._

_Lisa bends her over as the boyfriend pushes up her skirt._

"Are you even listening?" Veronica's voice cuts through the wonderful fog of the sex daydream.

"What?" He blinks at her and notices he no longer has a plate in front of him.

Her hand is out and making a gimmie motion.

"The fork, space cadet."

"Oh shit... um, yeah." He hands her the fork and moves to push away from the table when he notices that he is straining against his pants.

He waits until they are both out of sight before pushing away from the table and walks as quickly as possible to the bathroom door and locks it behind him.

He needs to cool down. Fast.

He turns the shower on as cold as it'll go and climbs in.

"Fuck." He hisses as the frigid water hits his overheated skin.

"Dick!" Mac's voice pierces through the water, "Are you taking a shower?" She sounds surprised.

He wants to tell her this is her fault, her and her late night activities... her far too vague concert story.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"God I was just asking because Veronica and I are about to leave." There's a pause and he's sure if the water wasn't running he'd hear her sigh, "Just stay here until we get back okay? I'm locking you in."

"Whatever." He waits for a response but there's nothing so he tries to just focuses on the water, not some cray cray bitch who was stalking him and not on how god damn fuckable Mac had become.

He comes out of the bathroom an hour or so later in Mac's housecoat. He smells of vanilla and honey and apricots, he must smell like Mac normally does and he'll be honest, he would much rather preferred to have gotten this smell on him another way.

On the coffee table is a pile of his clothes, a key and a note.

_Veronica and I are at the office, get dressed and meet us there. This key does not belong to you. I repeat this key does not belong to you._


End file.
